


Do you want a hug?

by discountsatanism



Category: Fablehaven Series - Brandon Mull
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Stargazing, hot chocolate - Freeform, sleep is for the weak, this in no way condones sitting outside at 2 am in conneticut, this is not what i was supposed to be doing today
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 10:47:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8664688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/discountsatanism/pseuds/discountsatanism
Summary: A poorly-planned surprise, about two seconds of stargazing, and mild but totally justified frustration at humans.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this took fifteen minutes of my time and all of my motivation for today.

Seth realizes he’s shaking when he goes for a sip of hot chocolate and ends up with a spill on his sweater. He groans, feeling the warm liquid slowly turn into freezing.

“Having an issue?” a voice says, coming from, of all places, right in front of him. Seth avoids startling into another spill, but just barely.

“Bracken?” Seth asks, giving up and setting his mug down next to him on the deck. “Aren’t you supposed to be in Fairyland?”

Bracken smiles a little. “I do have some free time. I came to visit Kendra.”

“It’s two in the morning,” Seth says.

“I was going to surprise her.”

Seth laughs. “What were you going to do? Wake her up in the middle of the night and ask if she wanted to go see a haunted grove?”

Bracken, surprisingly, sits down beside Seth. “Stargazing, actually.”

“Kendra would kill you if you woke her up to see _stars_ ,” Seth says. “Unlike some of us, she can actually sleep at night.”

“How about you?” Bracken asks.

“What.”

“How would you react if someone woke you up to see the stars?”

Seth shrugs, looking up. It takes him a second to respond, though, because he’s hit with a _something._ It’s not entirely the jaw-dropping awe that people tell him is there, but there’s something in the way the Connecticut small-town stars look _brighter_ than they are other places, and he feels like he could stare at them for a while. “I might maim you,” he says eventually. “But I’d go.”

When he looks back at Bracken, he’s giving Seth an odd look. “You’d what?”

“Well, maim is a strong word,” Seth corrects, “I might punch you.”

“Noted.”

They sit there in silence for a bit. Seth looks back up at the stars.

“So why are _you_ sitting on the deck at two am?” Bracken asks.

He probably should’ve prepared for this more. Warren walked in on him trying to figure out how to make a baking soda and vinegar volcano at midnight once, and they’d had a long talk about supplies and how shrieks of delight in the middle of the night were distracting and impolite. But he didn’t, and now Seth just shrugs. “Couldn’t sleep.”

“Is that common?” Bracken asks.

The answer is yes. You can’t run into Zzyzx and come out with a normal sleep schedule. You can’t be eaten by a demon and come out with a normal sleep schedule. You can’t battle a revenant and come out with a normal sleep schedule. You can’t be imprisoned by the Sphinx and come out with a normal sleep schedule. Seth hasn’t slept right for months and he doesn’t know how Kendra does.

“Eh,” Seth replies.

“Do you. . .want a hug?” Bracken asks awkwardly.

_What,_ Seth thinks.

“What,” Seth says.

Bracken huffs. “Do you want a hug?”

“I. . .um. . .yeah?”

It’s awkward, at first, and Seth is glad he’s put down his hot chocolate(even if it is sitting lonely and forgotten next to him), because Bracken turns out to be really warm and yeah, he was definitely shaking from the cold.

“You’re _freezing_ ,” Bracken says.

Seth isn’t sure how to respond to that, but then he remembers that terrible jokes are a thing. “Actually, my name is Seth.”

“I’m getting you a blanket,” Bracken says, standing up. Seth flinches a little from the sudden cold, and when he takes a gulp of his hot chocolate it’s gone lukewarm, but Bracken eventually emerges with a reasonably warm blanket and it’s as warm as the house.

“Nice,” Seth says, wrapping it around his arms.

“Humans,” Bracken mutters.

“I’m not the only one who makes terrible life choices,” Seth protests. “What about the time in priso-”

“Fine,” Bracken says, holding his hands up.

“Thanks for the blanket,” Seth says.

“Stay inside next time,” Bracken replies.

“No.”


End file.
